Homemade Hummus and Tzatziki (2 Simple DIY Recipes)
Homemade dips are delicious, plastic free, don’t contain a list of additives as long as your arm and are made with real ingredients, not bulked out with cheap ‘fillers’. What’s not to love?!
If you’re reading this and thinking, oh but I don’t have time for all that fiddly stuff, I want to try to convince you otherwise. There’s so many that you can make that are ready in minutes! Sure, if you want to try to recreate anything with the words ‘slow-roasted’ or ‘honey-glazed’ or ‘aged’ it’s probably not going to be a quick process, but there’s so many others that just involve combining a few ingredients and – ta-da!
Two of my favourites to make are hummus and tzatziki, because the recipes are so simple, cost next to nothing to make and taste fantastic. Hummus is a middle-eastern dip made from chickpeas and tahini (a paste made from ground sesame seeds). It’s dairy free and suitable for vegans, and tahini is a great vegan source of calcium. Tzatziki is a Greek dip made with yoghurt, cucumber and mint.
Hummus
I only buy dried chickpeas which are much cheaper and save wasteful packaging. I buy 1kg at a time, soak them overnight and boil for 1-1/2 hours. This makes a ridiculous amount of chickpeas but they freeze amazingly well, so I separate into a few containers and freeze what I don’t need.
This makes a shedload – just under 1 litre.
Ingredients:
650g cooked chickpeas (approx 400g dried chickpeas)
200g unhulled tahini paste
2 cloves garlic, crushed
40ml freshly-squeezed lemon juice (about 2.5 tbsp)
5 tbsp water
Method:
Put the chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice and crushed garlic in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add water until the mixture is a soft paste. You don’t want it to be runny.
Serving suggestions: if you want to be fancy, you can top the hummus with some whole chickpeas, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle on some sesame seeds or season with spices (try ground cumin, cumin seeds, paprika or cayenne pepper).
This can be kept in the fridge for up to a week.
Tzatziki
This makes about 500g
275g strained (Greek) yoghurt – if you want to make your own see instructions here)
1 English cucumber or 1 1/2 lebonese cucumbers
1tbsp grated lemon zest
1 tbsp lemon juice
large handful chopped mint (6 – 8 tbsp)
2 tbsp dill (optional)
Method:
Cut the cucumber into segments and remove the seeds (if your cucumbers don’t have very many seeds you can skip this step but mine had LOADS of seeds).
Grate the cucumber. If you have a food processor it will be superfast but if not then a normal grater is fine.
Put the cucumber in a clean dry tea towel, and squeeze tightly over the sink to drain the excess water.
Stir the cucumber into the yoghurt. Add the lemon juice and zest and chopped herbs and mix to combine.
This will keep in the fridge for at least 2 days.
NB: Don’t let any of the steps be a dealbreaker – if you don’t have Greek yoghurt and don’t want to strain it then you can use normal yoghurt; it will just make the dip much more runny. If you don’t want to strain the cucumber, the extra water will just make the dip a bit more watery. When I’m feeling lazy I just chop some mint, squeeze a bit of lemon juice, grate some cucumber and add to normal yoghurt.
[leadpages_leadbox leadbox_id=1429a0746639c5] [/leadpages_leadbox]
I love your website! It’s great to find a good recipe of an old favourite (hummus). Many thanks for sharing it. I made gallons of tzatziki last summer with an abundance of home-grown cucumbers from my vegie patch. I just couldn’t get enough of it. Cant wait til this coming summer!
Thank you so much!
I love hummus – I’m especially pleased now I’ve found somewhere that sells tahini in bulk because I was going through a lot of jars! So simple to make and so delicious!
I used to grow cucumbers when I lived in the UK, but this is my first year in Australia where I have a balcony with some sunlight – I’ll have to give it a go again. It still amazes me how much grows in winter though!
We always make out own homous and now I get the tahinni bulk too at Friends of the Earth Melbourne. I shall try the tzatziki , my elderly father lives with us anfd he loves it . Friends of the earth like people to bring in clean jars for others to use so i will take my empty jars from other products there.
Hi Kathy, homemade hummus is the best! I always mean to a big write up of various dips, but honestly – you can’t go wrong with hummus! ;)
When I make hummus I add a couple of tablespoons of aquafaba saved from cooking the chickpeas. Have a go – you’ll like it.
If I have any leftover (I freeze in ice cube trays) then I do exactly that, Barbara! Definitely makes it smoother :)
I make my own tahini for my homemade hummus. Just sesame seeds in my Vitamix. I’ve been able to go a lot more zero-waste & minimalist since I got my Vitamix & Instant Pot.
Ah, I dream of owning a Vitamix! The smoothness is unmatched, I think! Maybe one day… ;)
where do you buy your tahini?